Web search engines are increasingly becoming the method by which users seek information on the World Wide Web (herein “WWW”). As the WWW continues to grow in size, the task of finding relevant and pertinent information to a user's search query becomes increasingly complex. Not only do users expect answers to their search queries to be returned instantaneously, they also expect that the top answers returned relate specifically to what they are searching for.
Web search engines are computer programs accessible by web browsers which are designed to search the WWW and retrieve web pages that are files and documents accessible on the WWW and hosted by websites.
In general, web search engines generate large databases and indexes of websites and webpages accessible on the WWW, in a process known as web crawling. Such databases and indexes are updated frequently as websites and webpages are added, deleted, and changed very frequently on the WWW. The databases of a web search engine may include information regarding each webpage in the databases such as the actual words on the webpage, and the index usually includes information relating to how a webpage should be classified and indexed in the databases. When a user submits a search query to a web search engine, the web search engine uses its indexing system to determine which webpages in its databases match the search query it was provided with. The web search engine may be able to rank the webpages in its database which most closely match the search query it was provided with. The webpages which most closely match the search query are returned to the user and usually presented in the form of a list, also known as search results, a search results list, or even an ‘answer’ to a user's search query.
There are two types of searching methods that can be performed by web search engines. In the first method, as implemented by search engines, such as Google® and Bing, the input query is checked only against the indexes and databases maintained by the search engine. That is, a search query input to a Google's search engine is fully served by Google's databases and indexes and will not be relayed to other engines (e.g., to retrieve the result).
Web search engines such as Dogpile®, Ask.Com® and Metacrawler® are meta-search engines, also known as secondary search engines, which provide a submitted search query to various other web search engines and present search results which have been aggregated from a plurality of web search engines to a user. Other types of known web search engines include vertical comparison engines as well as widget and gadget-based personal homepage dashboards. Vertical comparison engines are search engines which compare items for sale from various other websites. For example, PriceGrabber.Com® and Shopzilla®.com enable a user to compare the price of a given product at multiple stores.
The search results returned from each of the web search engines provided with the search query are compared to eliminate duplicate items in the search results returned by different web search engines. The comparison may also include counting the number of times a particular file or document is returned across the web search engines for a given search query. Then, the returned search results from each of the web search engines provided with the search query are ranked. Ranking substantially refers to the procedure wherein the relevancy of a returned file or document to the received search query is determined. The returned search results from all of the web search engines are ranked, thereby determining which items in the search results are possibly more relevant as answers to the user's search query than others. Many methods for ranking webpages and websites, files and documents are known in the art, each of which use different criteria for determining the relevancy of a given item in a search results list to the user's search query.
Finally, the search results from each of the web search engines are aggregated into a combined search results list. The combined list may be combined based on the comparing of search results in and/or the ranking of search results. The webpage(s) displaying the search results substantially include a list of links to websites and webpages related to the search query. In some cases, the return search results would also include images, videos, news feeds, and the like, which are also displayed to the user.
Widget and gadget-based personal homepage dashboards enable a user to design a personalized homepage or personal web portal which may include a plurality of applications known as widgets or gadgets that can provide a user with information. Netvibes®.com, iGoogle and My Yahoo!® are all examples of widget and gadget-based personal homepage dashboards.
FIG. 8 shows a schematic illustration showing a search results webpage 50 that includes a window 51 in which the search results are shown. The window 51 includes a search bar 52 and a cursor 54, wherein a user can type in a search query, as well as a search button 56 for submitting the search query to a web search engine. As in standard web search engines, the window in which a user can interact with the web search engine is substantially divided into two by a line 58. Above line 58 is the interface in window 51 for submitting a search query, whereas below line 58, search results are presented to the user.
In the exemplary FIG. 8, a user submitted a search query to a web search engine and received search results which are shown schematically below line 58. First shown are sponsored search results 60 and then a first website description 62 for a first website. First website description 62 represents a description of a website which substantially matched the user's search query as determined by the web search engine. Below first web site description 62 are four images 641, 642, 643 and 644. Each of four images 641, 642, 643 and 644 represents images which also substantially matched the user's search query as determined by the web search engine. The web search engine then returned a second website description 66 for a website as well as two videos 681 and 682, all of which substantially matched the user's search query. Below the two videos 681 and 682, the web search engine also returned news results 70, which are substantially links to documents from news websites that mention words in the user's search query. Below the news results 70, the web search engine also returned a list of alternate search queries 72 which are similar to the search query submitted by the user via search bar 52.
The schematic search results webpage 50 would be returned whether the user performs the search query using a PC, a smartphone, a tablet device, or devices from which a user can provide a query from and receive a response to. Web search engines have not substantially adapted the return webpages to the device generating the query, and hence displaying the results. The user experience when reviewing the results is very limited, as the user has to scroll down and review each web site's description returned by the text. This approach is very inconvenient when trying to review the results over, e.g., a smartphone having a small display.
Furthermore, while the results as displayed to users maybe catered to the user's personal preferences, they do not reflect a personalized, real-time and deep web content. This is due to the fact that prior art search engines provide the links based on a crawl function. That is, the data provided reflects content stored on the server(s) of the search engine, rather than data that is provided by a resource to which a link is provided to. Hence, such a resource may change its content and provide useless information once accessed based on the link provided.
It would be therefore advantageous to provide a solution that would overcome the limitations of existing web search engines.